The Polish Navy which fought alongside the
Royal Navy was one of a number of the Allied Navies - e.g. the Free French
Navy, the Dutch Navy and the Norwegian Navy that had connections with Scotland
during the Second World War.

At the outbreak of war
in September 1939 the Polish Navy consisted of 4 destroyers, 5 submarines, 1
mine-layer and 6 modern mine sweepers, as well as several auxiliary and training
ships. A number of these ships were lost in the Baltic to enemy air action and
3 submarines were interned in Sweden,
unable to reach Britain.

(2) Arrival of the
Polish Navy in Scotland

By prior agreement
contingents of the Polish Navy were to make their way to Britain. This
agreement in March 1939 concerned military co-operation between Britain and Poland
and in particular the Polish Navy, was entered into before Britain declared war on Germany. Orders
were drawn up in August 1939 for 3 Polish destroyers to make their way to Britain. This
decision had been taken to enable the ships to operate in other waters in case
the bases were captured by the enemy.

On 1st September 1939,
after leaving Gdynia on the Baltic on the 30th
August, the destroyersOORP(Ships of the Republic of Poland)
Blyskawica (Lightning),Grom
(Thunder) and Burza (Tempest)sailed into the Firth of Forth and
were escorted into Leith. They were to form
the Polish Destroyer Squadron. Leith was the first of a number of Scottish
ports, such as Rosyth, Greenock, Port Glasgow, Ardrossan, Gourock, Dundee, the
naval base at Scapa Flow and others that were
to see Polish ships. The Squadron operated initially from Plymouth
(clandestine operations off southern Ireland
and escort duties) and then moved to Harwich for duties in the North Sea.

The Polish Navy for
the first time in its history was now fighting in two seas, the North Sea and the Baltic.

Two submarines later
joined the Polish naval force. The submarine ORP Wilk (Wolf) reached Rosyth
on the 20th September 1939, its commander Boguslaw Krawczyk, being the first
Polish Navy officer to receive the DSO. The Wilk and Orzel
(Eagle) after refitting were assigned to the 2nd Submarine Flotilla based at
Rosyth. The Orzel became well known to the British public on account of
its daring escape from the port
of Tallin in Esthonia,
which Churchill described as 'epic'.

(3) Anglo-Polish
Naval Agreement of November 1939

On the 18 November 1939
an Anglo-Polish Naval Agreement was signed. It agreed that the Polish Naval
Detachment was to be commanded by Polish officers, its ships manned by Polish
crews with Polish uniforms and rank distinctions and subject to Polish
regulation, but subordinated to the operational control of the British
Admiralty. The ships were sovereign Polish territory.

(4) The Phoney War

The period of October
1939 to early April 1940 was described as the time of the "phoney
war" (Sitzkrieg). For the small Polish Naval Detachment fighting at the side
of the Royal Navy this was hardly true as it was very much in action during
this time. Indeed the Polish Navy can claim that it fought from the first to
the last day of the War.

(5) Polish Naval
Losses and Replacements in the Early Campaigns

The German invasion of Denmark and Norway involved all the Polish
ships operating out of British ports. The early summer of 1940 perhaps marked
the lowest fortunes of the Polish Navy when one of its two submarines was lost,
one of its three destroyers sunk while two further ships were in for repair.
Additionally there were severe losses in its merchant fleet - the linersPilsudski
and Chrobry.

But like the phoenix
the Polish Navy was to re-emerge. Losses in ships were made good by
transferring mainly British ships, for example, HMS Garland became the ORP
Garland (the Poles retaining the tradition of this old Royal Navy name).
Other warships came from the French Navy whose crews had abandoned their ships
in British waters - two patrol vessels, the Medoc
and Pomerol and two submarine chasers ("Ch.11" and
"Ch.12"). Twelve ex-Belgian trawlers (numbered "P1" to
"P12") based at Dartmouth
were also turned over to the Polish Navy for anti-invasion patrols. The French
destroyer Ouragan, towed from Brest,
was also loaned to the Polish Navy though it spent most of the period under
Polish command undergoing repairs.

(6) Battle
of the Atlantic

By October 1940 the
Polish destroyers moved to their new base at Greenock and from there
participated in the hard fought Battle of the Atlantic. During this battle the Polish destroyers Piorun
(Thunderbolt, formerly HMS Nerissa), Blyskawica, Orkan (Hurricane),
Burza and Garlandserved as escorts for trans-Atlantic convoys. A plaque on a Polish monument
at Prestwick in Ayrshire commemorates those who died in the Battle
of the Atlantic and they are remembered to
this day by former sailors of the Polish Navy.

(7) The Role of Poland's
Merchant Fleet

The Polish Merchant
Fleet had also been successful in removing itself from Baltic waters in 1939,
some 38 vessels having escaped. These ships were integrated into the Allied
Merchant Pool. The Polish ships were able to bring young naval trainees to the
West who provided a valuable manpower resource throughout the War.

Polish merchant ships:

carried Allied troops to Norway

evacuated British and Polish troops from France in
1940

took children to the safety of America

brought American and Canadian troops to Britain

carried valuable cargoes to Murmansk
and Africa

participated in large scale landings of the Allies - in North
Africa, Salerno, the invasion of Normandy and the south of France

In all some 54 vessels with a total tonnage of 188,000 tons
carried nearly 5 million tons of valuable war supplies.

Numbers
of these ships called in at Scottish ports.

11
ships were lost including 3 liners.

(8) Expansion of the
Polish Navy

Losses were made good
by using mainly ex-British ships to replace wartime losses and also to effect
an expansion of the Polish Navy, including a cruiser, the first the Polish Navy
ever possessed. A total of 2 cruisers, 6 destroyers, 3 submarines and 8 Motor
Torpedo Boats were transferred to the Polish Navy during the War. During the
War Polish ships found themselves seconded to RN units, e.g. the submarine ORP
Sokol (Falcon) was at one time seconded to the RN's 9th Submarine Flotilla
based in Dundee.

(9) Organization of
the Polish Navy

The chief of the Polish
Navy was Vice-Admiral Jerzy Swirski whose headquarters was in London. In the UK administration of the Polish
Navy was divided into two Commands - 'North' and 'South'. The 'North' Command
was based in Greenock and 'South' at Plymouth.
Also based in Scotland was
Holding Station 'Glasgow' which in 1944 moved to Bowling Camp, near Glasgow.

(10) List of Combat
Operations of the Polish Navy

The Polish Navy
participated in many famous actions during the war and some of her ships were
to become well known to the British public. The Polish Navy took part in major
naval operations, such as:

Narvik

Dunkirk

the hunt for the Bismarck

LofotenIslands

Tobruk

Murmansk convoys

Dieppe landings

landings at Anzio

landings in the Azores

Battle of the Atlantic

Dodecanese

landings in North Africa

landings in Normandy

actions in the Mediterranean

North Sea

the English Channel

the Baltic

(11) The Royal
Navy's Tribute to the Polish Navy

Of Poland's naval
service in the Second World War, the British First Sea Lord, Sir Dudley Pound
said in 1942 when decorating some Polish submariners.

"Last
night I asked my Chief of Staff to give me a list of all Polish warships
fighting alongside the Royal Navy. I was shocked to learn how few they are
because in all despatches of naval operations and major engagements I almost
always find a name of a Polish ship that distinguished itself."

(12) Women in the
Service of the Polish Navy

Polish servicewomen in
the Navy came under Polish Admiralty control in July 1944. These Polish
volunteers (Polish nickname 'seagulls') began to release men for combat
assignments.

(13)
Strength, Casualties and other Statistics

The personnel strength
of the Polish ships in British waters in 1939 was less than 1,000, but by the
end of the war was over 4,000 strong. Some 404 men were lost in action and 5
warships sunk. The greatest loss of life occurred in the sinking of the ORP
Orkan. Four Polish midshipmen were among the casualties of HMS Hood when it
blew up.

The Polish Navy while
operating with the Royal Navy:

sailed a total of 1,213,000 nautical miles

escorted 787 convoys

carried out 1,162 combat patrols

sank 2 U-Boats and 11 probably damaged

sank 39 transports

shot down 20 aircraft

(14)
Post-War Operations

After the war in Europe
Polish warships participated in mercy missions, for example, delivering Red Cross
packets to the Poles liberated from German labour camps. In August 1945 the ORP
Blyskawica, which fought the longest of any Allied ship, was based at
Rosyth. At the end of the war she took part in 'Operation Deadlight' - the
sinking of captured enemy U-boats before being handed back in May 1946, via the
British, to the Communist authorities in Poland. Today, the
"Blyskawica" is a ship museum at Gdynia
on the Baltic in Poland.

Other ships of the
Polish Navy were handed back to the British in July and September 1946. On the
24th September 1946 at Rosyth, the flag of the destroyer ORP Garland was
hauled down for the last time.

(15) The Impact of Yalta

The prevailing
political situation at the end of the war was full of bitter disillusionment
and tragic disappointment for the Poles.

Vice-Admiral Jerzy Swirski, C-in-C of the Polish Navy addressed all
men of the Polish Navy in an Order of the Day of the 28th September 1946 on the
occasion of the handing back of the ships of the Polish Navy.

"...Thus we come
to the end of the glorious pages of the history of our Navy, the armed forces
of Poland
on the high seas. But we remain, the Navy's personnel deprived of our
Motherland and of our Ships. The glorious part played by our Navy and the proud
memory of our Ships - which for us constitute a part of our Country and our
homes - will for ever remain in our hearts."

After reviewing the
war record of the Navy's ships he paid tribute to all those who lost their lives
in the service of their country and to all those who fulfilled their duties. He
ended, "In the war we were the first to stand at the side of our British
Allies and it was with complete confidence that we gave all our moral and
material help. We fulfilled our duties faithfully, as allies to the very end.
The personnel of the British Navy, who were our trusty comrades and on whom we
could always rely in all operations and circumstances, are witnesses to this.
But the battles and hardships have not given us the results which we expected
from this war. Our Country continues to remain in a political situation which
prevents the majority of us from returning to Poland.

We shall shortly
cease to be a Navy, however, the knowledge of the complete fulfilment of our
duties towards Poland
as well as towards our Allies brightens the bitterness of our reality. We are
not the debtors, as will be seen when the Allies close their accounts.

Continuing to be
united by a strong ideological tie - we, the naval family will continue to live
and work for Poland, believing that in the end we shall regain our Country and
that the majority of us will offer their services to the navy in a free Poland.
At present, we are temporarily living through the end of our naval activity. May
the good God take care of us all and may He spare us suffering and disillusion
and may He lead us back to a free Poland. Long
live Poland!"

Unable or unwilling to
return to a Soviet dominated Poland
numbers of navy personnel settled in Scotland. To this day they keep
alive the traditions of the Polish Navy and the Sea. Polish independence was
restored in December 1990.

(16) Polish Navy Ranks and their equivalent RN rank

Polish rank

Abbrev

RN equivalent

marynarz

mar.

Ordinary Seaman

starszy marynarz

st.mar.

Able-Bodied Seaman

mat

mat

Leading Seaman

starszy mat

st.mat

Senior Leading Seaman

bosmanmat

bosmanmat

Petty Officer 2nd Class

bosman

bosman

Petty Officer 1st Class

starszy bosman

st.bosman

Chief Petty Officer

chorazy marynarki

chor.mar.

Warrant Officer

podporucznik marynarki

ppor.mar.

Sub-Lieutenant

porucznik marynarki

por.mar

Lieutenant

kapitan marynarki

kpt.mat

Lieutenant Commander

komandor-podporucznik

kdr.ppor

Commander

komandor-porucznik

kdr.por

No equivalent RN rank

komandor

kdr.

Captain RN

no equivalent Polish rank

-

Commodore

kontr-admiral

-

Rear-Admiral

wice-admiral

-

Vice-Admiral

admiral

-

Admiral

no equivalent Polish rank

-

Admiral of the Fleet

(17) Polish Navy Day
10th February

This date commemorates Poland's symbolic re-unification with the Baltic Sea on 10th February 1920.

(18) Polish Navy
Memorials in Scotland

Glasgow - PolishCemetery in Dalbeth Road, Glasgow
- Memorial to sailors who died after the war.

Scottish Cemeteries - There are a number of cemeteries in Scotland where the CWGC have erected headstones
to Polish Navy casualties who died in service of Poland. CardonaldCemetery in Glasgow,
St Kentigern's in Glasgow, the Western
Necropolis in Dundee, Corstorphine Hill in Edinburgh
and WellshillCemetery
in Perth
contain most of the Navy war graves.

Prestwick - RAFA 'Stonegarth' - A
Polish memorial to the sailors of the Polish Navy.

(19) Web Sites about
the Polish Navy During World War Two and the Modern Polish Navy

There are a number of
web sites which feature the Polish Navy. These include sites which contain
technical data about the Polish Navy and a much broader history of the Polish
Navy from its inception in 1918 up to the present day.

A search for web pages
referring to the 'Polish Navy' and its actions during the Second World War and
to the modern Polish Navy can easily be found using a search engine such as
www.google.com.

In
April 2001 over 2,000 web sites were listed using the search terms 'Polish
Navy". Eight years later this had increased to 20,000. Off course, not all
the sites listed will be relevant and any search needs to be narrowed to locate
references to the Polish Navy during WWII.

Some Polish Navy web
sites have useful links to other relevant sites. Searches could also focus on
individual ships such as for example, the ORP Orkan or ORP Blyskawica, etc.

For researchers who can
read Polish there are a number of Polish web sites dedicated to the Polish
Navy.

A number of web sites
are devoted to the Royal Navy and these are worth checking for references to
the Polish Navy during WWII.

For actions involving
the Polish Navy and German U-Boats refer to the undernoted site.

Roskill, Stephen. The War at Sea 1939-1945 (3 volumes) London (Official British
history). Contains some references to the Polish Navy.

The Polish Navy was
involved in many operations and references to its ships and actions are likely
to be contained in other English language histories. For those who can read
Polish there are a number of texts in the Polish language concerning the
history of the Polish Navy.